"They yell out, 'Hey, Bandit! Look out! Smokey's chasing you!'"
"People go crazy for my car simply because of that movie," he said. But that doesn't detract from the fun of driving the Woodward Dream Cruise in August each year. His vehicle doesn't have the Burt Reynolds signature on the glove compartment, as many collectors do, Piccalo said. "A lot of my friends back in the day had a Camaro and I wanted a nicer car than my friends. "I bought the car on July 20, 1984, for $4,800," Piccalo said. Mark Piccalo of Warren, 53, a sales consultant at James Martin Chevrolet in midtown Detroit, owns a black and gold 1977 Trans Am Special Edition like those featured in the hit film. More: Ford shows off 2019 Mustang Bullitt, finds original 1968 Fastback at Detroit auto showĪ Trans Am produced by Universal Studios to promote the film sold in 2016 for $550,000, according to a Barrett-Jackson listing. More: Original 1968 Mustang Bullitt would sell for higher than $4 million, insurer says More: 'Bullitt' Mustang spent 40 years in garage - now it's going on tour That film’s only surviving Mustang Bullitt, which was unveiled at the Detroit auto show in 2018 after having been hidden for decades in the owner’s garage, is valued at some $4 million.
“As a high school senior, that was about as awesome a car as I could drive,” McElroy said.įord hit the jackpot with the 1968 action thriller film "Bullitt," which featured Steve McQueen driving a Mustang through the hills of San Francisco. While McElroy never owned a Trans Am, his father, who worked at Ford, did own a 1971 Mustang Mach 1. “When you hit that magic, and a car becomes a star, wow, it can really help sales.” “When it all comes together with the actor, the car, the script and that moment in pop culture? For an automaker that’s better than advertising,” McElroy said. Sometimes the car is part of the backdrop.
I had the mustache back in the day, but I didn't look like him." And my wife fell in love with Burt Reynolds.
WHAT YEAR TRANS AM IN SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT MOVIE
"The movie made the car popular, really more with non-car people. It was a big car for us," said Art Douglas, 61, of Jim Douglas Auto Sales on Baldwin Avenue in Pontiac, which his father founded in 1975.
WHAT YEAR TRANS AM IN SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT FULL
"We could have our whole front line full with Trans Ams. And the quickest way to be like him was to get a Pontiac Trans Am.”Īuto companies love to see their cars featured in movies. They want to be a movie star with a hot babe. “There were so many young men who wanted to be exactly like Burt Reynolds. “Burt Reynolds exemplified a crazy wild reckless handsome persona and he had this babe of a girlfriend at the time,” said John McElroy, 65, longtime industry observer and host of Autoline.TV. It turned out to be a top grossing film that year, along with "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Saturday Night Fever." Justice, aka "Smokey," (played by Jackie Gleason).Ī chase ensues with a bride on the run.
En route, Bo "Bandit" Darville (played by Burt Reynolds) picks up a pretty hitchhiker (played by Sally Field) who refuses to marry the son of Sheriff Buford T. The 1977 action romance is about a guy who makes a Coors beer run from Texas to Georgia within 28 hours. By comparison, the top Camaro of the same year - a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 - is worth $22,000 in the current market.” “In the current market, a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Special Edition - similar to what Burt Reynolds drove in the film - is worth $76,000. "We specifically refer to late second-generation Trans Ams as the '“Smokey and the Bandit'-era Trans Am.” “Without a doubt, the popularity of late ‘70s Pontiac Trans Ams is due to its prominent role in the 'Smokey and the Bandit' film," said Jonathan Klinger, spokesman for Hagerty, which specializes in classic car valuation and insurance. Watch Video: Remembering the legendary Burt Reynoldsīurt Reynolds will always be remembered for the high-speed chase scenes in “Smokey and the Bandit.”Īnd those images directly impacted the car industry.